Church of St Michael (new church)

Church of St Michael (New Church)

This is a Decorated Gothic style church built from local rubble with gritstone dressings and a slate roof with stone copings. The building comprises a nave of 5 bays, a shorter and narrower chancel with a north vestry, and a southwest porch. An ashlar bellcote stands at the west end, with crosses positioned at each east gable apex.

The exterior is articulated by buttresses at each nave bay, with diagonal buttresses at the corners. The chancel has lateral buttresses. Nave, chancel and vestry walls and buttresses share a continuous plinth. A continuous moulded string forms the sill band to the pointed-arched windows and hood band to the square-framed windows.

The north wall of the nave contains 5 windows, each with paired trefoil-headed lights and a quatrefoil above, set within a pointed-arched frame with hoodmould. Similarly detailed windows appear in each of the 4 bays east of the porch on the south wall of the nave. The easternmost bay of the south nave wall contains a single ogee-headed light in a square frame. A similar window appears in the lower part of the west gable wall; the gallery window above is an octofoil light in a circular frame with hoodmould and human head stops.

The bellcote is constructed of slender ashlar masonry with a gabled form and carries two bells within its traceried openings. It is supported by a corbel table with an arcade of 3 pointed arches. The rectangular block above is decorated with paired recessed panels containing cusped, intertwined tracery designs. The bellcote above has a steeply pitched roof surmounted by a cross.

The chancel south wall has a single trefoil-headed light in a pointed-arched frame with hoodmould. A similarly detailed window appears in the north wall of the north vestry. The east wall has a pointed-arched doorway with hoodmould. The east chancel window is the only stained glass window, depicting biblical scenes in remembrance of Reverend E W Griffith, died 1896; the remaining windows are plain leaded lights. The east chancel window is a pointed-arched window of 3 trefoil-headed lights with geometric tracery and hoodmould.

The southwest porch has a steeply pitched slate roof with stone copings. Entry to the church is through a narrow pointed-arched doorway; the inner porch door is a pointed-arched sandstone doorway with hollow chamfered surround.

Interior

The interior comprises a nave of 11 roof bays with a gallery at the west end. The gallery has a moulded rail supported on stick balusters with cusped tracery detail at the upper part; this open front sits above a moulded wooden cornice and is supported on 4 widely spaced columns. The nave has exposed rafters and collared trusses with curving cusped braces carried down to wall posts on moulded corbels. Above the collar, the cusped braces form trefoils in each lower angle.

The chancel is accessed through a hollow moulded pointed arch and is raised by 3 steps. It has an exposed roof of 3 bays with collared trusses with curved, cusped braces descending to wall posts on human head corbels. The sanctuary is raised by 2 further steps and has a moulded rail on twisted stanchions with foliate brackets. The walls of the sanctuary are clad with wooden panelling. Both chancel and sanctuary are floored with encaustic tiles.

The south wall of the chancel has a blocked recess bearing 2 plaques: the uppermost is a slate memorial to Thomas Michael Esq, died 1683. The lower is a brass plaque to Lewis Williams, died 1670, reset from the old church.

The pulpit is octagonal with 4 facing panels bearing recessed panels decorated with cusped tracery designs. The gritstone font is octagonal with a slightly tapering bowl set on a stone pillar on a square plinth.

The church retains some seats from the old church: one in the chancel carved "T M 1684", and another below the gallery carved "R B W M 1744". A bell from the old church is situated by the pulpit, dating from the 14th century and inscribed "MICHAEL", bearing a stamp of the Virgin and Child.